Readers of this blog will know that I have written at length about the paradox of "markets" - prices are public but their makeup are private. The notion of "private markets" is therefore a contradiction within a contradiction! Data Black Holes Leave Policymakers ‘Flying Blind’ in Hunt for Next Crash The rise of private markets has obscured data which regulators and economists rely on to identify risks in the global economy. Illustration by Grace J. Kim Saved Translate Predicting the next economic crash or financial crisis has always been more art than science. Today there’s an added complication — the increasing paucity of information about what’s really going on in the economy and financial system. The issue was thrown into sharp focus last year during the US government shutdown, when the Federal Reserve was starved of key data from inflation to retail sales and job numbers used to shape monetary policy. Yet the barriers to accessing data on key risks — some wit...